Successful social policies for children are critical to
America's future. Yet the status of children in America suggests
that the nation's policies may not be serving them well. Infant and
child mortality rates in the U.S. remain high compared to other
western industrialized nations; child poverty rates have worsened
in the past decade; poor health care, child abuse, and inadequate
schooling and child care persist.
This book presents a new set of social policies designed to
alleviate these problems and to help satisfy the needs of all
children. The policies deal with the seven critical domains
affecting children from birth through the passage to adulthood:
child care, schooling, transition to work, health care, income
security, physical security, and child abuse.
While nearly everyone agrees that children are in trouble, there
is considerable debate over what kind of trouble they are in, why
this is so, and whether government can or should more actively seek
to solve these problems. Americans are evenly divided on the
question of whether children's problems are more economic or moral
in origin. The seven proposals in this volume both reflect and cut
across ideological disagreements. Some call for more government,
others call for less, and all call for different government methods
for achieving socially agreed upon goals.
Recommendations include: replacing major welfare programs and
tax subsidies with a set of universal policies, including national
health insurance, child support assurance, and universal child
care; offering publicly funded vouchers to allow poor children in
inner-city neighborhoods to choose their own schools; using both
private and governmental resources to get tough on crime through
more stringent criminal justice policies and dramatic social
measures; and expanding apprenticeship programs for non-college
bound youths.
In addition to the editors, the contributors are Barbara R.
Bergmann and Robert I. Lerman, American University; Douglas J.
Besharov, American Enterprise Institute; John J. DiIulio, Jr.,
Princeton University; Julia Graham Lear, George Washington
University; and Diane Ravitch, New York University.
General
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